Rightly understanding the potential legal consequences of a tenant’s negligence is a significant challenge for landlords. When your tenant signed the lease, they agreed to carefully maintain your Vinton rental home in a clean and proper condition and refrain from illegal activities. But, in actual fact, not all tenants adhere to these terms, and troubles that are started on the property can promptly escalate into legal problems for you.
While, in fact, you are not held responsible for the illegal activities of your tenant, if you determine that your rental home is being used for unauthorized business activities, your neighbors could potentially hold you totally liable. The outcome of any legal action taken against you will, for the most part, depend on your awareness of the issue and the steps you took to tackle it. Being proactive in such situations is truly critical to protecting your interests.
How and When You Knew
Often renters are excellent at hiding shady activities from their landlords. Be that as it may, if you do become aware of what is happening on your rental property, it is focal to address the issues immediately. In majority of regions, you could be held liable in court if your tenant engages in dangerous or illegal activities that you were certainly aware of.
Like, for example, if you knew one of your tenants was using your rental home as a daycare and one of your renters or their clients hurt someone, themselves, or damaged personal property, the court could possibly hold you liable for any damages.
The Slippery Slope of “Should”
Now and again, whether you “should” have known about a renter’s illicit activities may come up. Specifically, if you know your renter is self-employed before you offer them a lease, there is some confusion in connection with whether or not that shows that you should have assumed they would be conducting that business in the rental home.
Aside from that, if your renter had been evicted for high-spirited parties in the past, you may be held accountable since you should have checked with their previous landlord about it. Definitely, if you’ve worked on due diligence and didn’t figure out any evidence of past problems, that will seriously increase your chances of avoiding liability.
Addressing the Problem
Addressing any problems a renter creates the first chance you learned about them is always a good idea. Except sometimes, a property owner has a limited ability to etirely fix the issue altogether. If a tenant is creating a nuisance for the neighbors but hasn’t plainly broken the lease terms, you can’t be held responsible for failing to evict them.
To be clearly liable, you must have the power to certainly do something as to the issue. Obviously, the flip side is that if your lease clarifies that you don’t allow weird parties or business activities and you don’t take action, you could surely be on the hook in a lawsuit
The specific terms and language used in the lease are a significant first step toward holding your tenants accountable for any nuisance or illicit activities. Aside from that, taking immediate and appropriate action is likewise essential to keeping yourself from being sued by annoyed neighbors.
Thoughtfully and thoroughly screening your renters is another substantial part of keeping yourself out of unwelcome legal trouble, as is doing regular property evaluations. At Real Property Management Colonial, we do all this for our Vinton property owners – and more. Would you like to actually learn more? Just feel free to get in touch with us online or by phone at 540-595-7411 for more useful information.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
